The International Workboat Show is the major marine industry-related trade event in North America. It is an annual expo held in New Orleans for any commercial vessel owners, builders, operators and even vendors and suppliers to make genuine connection and network among the best in the industry.

This year’s International Workboat Show will be held in Morial Convention Center in New Orleans from Nov 30th to Dec 3rd. It is expected that over 15,000 members of the commercial marine industry will gather from across the globe to network, promote new trends and reveal innovative products, solutions and strategies that could give extreme benefits in the related business in 2017 and beyond. Read More

North America’s Largest Metal Forming, Fabricating, Welding, and Finishing Event, is how their official website describes FABTECH.

With over 1,300 exhibitors and 28,000 attendees flocking at the 550,000 square foot Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada in mid-November, FABTECH 2016 did more than just live up to its reputation.

FABTECH 2012 was held at this very venue and ended up garnering 93 leads per exhibitor – a total of 117,487 leads. Quite a return for a modest investment! But FABTECH is more than just about sales and networking. Read More

^ Delwaide Dock at the Port of AntwerpImage Courtesy of Arminius from nl at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zicht_op_het_Delwaidedok.jpg

How Big is Too Big?

Perhaps it is their length that makes them look mammoth. Or the endless rows of stacked containers. Be as it may, latest generation container ships carry over 19,000 containers of twenty foot equivalent (TEU) size. And by the looks of it, they are about to get bigger.

MSC Oscar is the largest-capacity container vessel in the world at present with a 19,224 TEU capacity. It captured the top spot in January 2015 after ending the short, two-month reign of the 19,000 TEU CSCL Globe. We may well see 21,000 TEU capacity ships by 2017.

Container ships are the veritable work horses of the global economy when it comes to transporting consumer goods. Please note, shipping carries 90% of the globally traded merchandise. Read More

MSC Oscar is the World’s Largest Container Ship with 19,224TEU CapacityImage Courtesy of Kees Torn at https://www.flickr.com/photos/68359921@N08/16520366958/Retrieved From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MSC_Oscar_(ship,_2014)_002.jpg

Exponential Expansion

Malcolm McLean was one frustrated man in 1937. The owner of a North Carolina trucking company, he grew wary of the process of loading ships with cargo from trucks – it took ages. It occurred to him that cranes could load truck trailers directly onto ships.

But it would be another nineteen years before McLean could put his idea into practice and build the very first container ship, the Ideal X. She was a converted tanker that could carry 58 containers. Only 58 containers by today’s standards. From then on, there was no turning back.

MSC Oscar is the largest container ship of the day and can carry 19,224 twenty foot equivalent (TEU) containers. The size of container ships has expanded faster than that of any other ship type. Read More

Plastic-infested landfills make good claim to be the living hell on earth. The unbearable stench announces their presence for miles around even as the piles of garbage present an ugly sight you can certainly do without. And we are not even talking of the pollution and diseases they unleash.

But then, plastic has become an integral element of our present-day, on-the-go lifestyles. Who among us does not use carry bags, water bottles, soda cans and other such plastic items? Read More

^ Image “News Dice Show Coverage Of Current Events” courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October might be known for festive frights, but a number of events in the maritime industry gave us some real world scares. Hurricane Matthew kicked off the month, weaving its way from the Caribbean to the Southeastern United States. Its destructive path ushered in 100 mph winds, storm surges as high as 9 feet, with rainfall and flooding. The price tag for damages is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Read More

^ Stainless Steel used for Industrial PipingImage Courtesy of momente at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-233462404/stock-photo-stainless-steel-pipe.html?src=agh3Z0yvSFw9D5oKertNKQ-1-31

Importance & Weldability of Stainless Steel

Contrary to popular belief, stainless steel (SS) is not a single material. It is a broad term that includes five types of steels and there are subdivisions under each of these five. The 304 and 316 grades are among the most popularly used stainless steels.SS is widely used in industry because it resists corrosion and is durable under testing conditions. The fact that you don’t have to replace it repeatedly, saves money, time, and effort. That apart it is strong with 500-1000 MPa strength, maintains its look over time, and is recyclable. Read More

Living as we are in the age of rapid technological advance, things are changing at breakneck speeds. And the transformation affects all walks of life. Since ages, change has been the only imperishable entity. Of late however, it has gathered unprecedented momentum.

Welding is among the most popular joining processes, highly valued across the rank and file of the metal industry as it connects materials at the molecular level with joint strength equivalent to that of the constituent materials. Read More

Every month brings a wide range of news and developments for an industry as dynamic as ours! This September, Kemplon Engineering rounds up some of the most buzzed-about headlines and issues in this edition of the Monthly Maritime News Roundup:

The last day of August ushered in shipping turmoil with Hanjin Shipping’s Bankruptcy Filing. Described by JOC.com as “the largest container shipping bankruptcy in history,” the fallout from the filing rocked September with news of scrambling merchants and shippers, marooned ships, ships unserved at port, and seized assets. This development is a huge one for container shipping, not merely for Hanjin’s size – it is the seventh biggest container shipper – but also for the timing, which may be disruptive to high retail demand expected in the coming holidays at the end of the year. Read More

Welding is a Fundamental Technology – Image Courtesy of the United States Air Force Retrieved From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GMAW.welding.af.ncs.jpg

Radically Shifting Welding Landscape

Welding is a fundamental technology without which the manufacturing industry cannot operate at the current levels of sophistication. Properties of weld joints, rather than those of the welded materials, often determine the performance of a structure.

Like most other technologies, welding is steadily evolving. Research has significantly altered the landscape of welding with transitions over the past two decades being particularly noteworthy. Read More